A hand dryer is a device structured such that, when wet hands are inserted into a hand insertion area, a hand detecting sensor detects the hands, and a high-pressure air generator and a heater start operating to blow a jet of heated air through a discharge nozzle into the hand insertion area, to thereby blow away water drops from the hands. Hand dryers are mostly placed in public rest rooms. Public rest rooms are used by unspecified people, and there may be pathogenic bacteria and viruses floating in the air around hand dryers. Thus, in a situation in which a number of people are using a public rest room, there is a risk of air-borne infection by bacteria or viruses occurring to the users while waiting for a turn to use a hand dryer or while using one.
As to air-cleaning devices, public rest rooms are at best provided with ventilating fans, which are, of course, not equipped with a function of actively working on floating bacteria or viruses to kill or inactivate them.
The applicant of the present application proposed before an air conditioner and an air cleaner which are provided with an ion generator that generates positive and negative ions, including mainly H+ (H2O)m and O2− (H2O)n, capable of killing floating bacteria and inactivating floating viruses (see Patent Literature 2). However, provision of air conditioners or air cleaners as described above in a public rest room would increase the facility cost and the maintenance cost. Furthermore, preparing a space for placing them would be another problem. Thus, practically, it is very difficult to provide an air conditioner or an air cleaner in a public rest room.